7 days in Kyoto

I've made it to Kyoto.  Instead of writing this up last night just went to bed around 6:30, qnd now I've had a good 12 hours of sleep and feel great.  Yesterday I woke up at popeyes around 5:30 to a lot of very noisy guys packing up.  Could here grumbling from some various booths because whoever was packing was dropping heavy stuff, clanging items, unzipping and stuffing stuff in their bag, 0 f's given to the people around them.  It worked out ok because I had forgotten to submit my work timecard when I left last week and Brody messaged me about it.  Sorry!  At any rate I got caught up on that.

I checked out at 7 and still had time to kill until the post office opened at 9.  The place to go was McDonalds.  There breakfast menu looks about the same but with minor tweaks like having lettuce on many breakfast sandwiches.  I got the bacon egg sandwich and sat for a bit.  Only noticable difference was the bacon was a single thickish slab.  

I headed over to the post office just after they opened.  The woman inside was suuuuper helpful and this was the first time I used google translate in person for a few sentences like "I need to send some items to America and I need a box". I got through it with a few mishaps that at least entertained them including filling out the instruction page of the form and saying, instead of "There is not a box", I said "There is not a tomb".  Technically that was correct there was not a tomb.  I sent out my tent, sleeping pad, and sleeping bag, keeping the bag liner for extra warmth at i-cafes in tokyo.  It was around 55 bucks.  And I used them 1 time to save abiut that much so I'll call it a wash.

Afterwards it was still pretty early and my checkin at the hostel in Kyoto was at 4, so I killed some time by going back to DenDen town to play some games.  I spent some time on a claw grabbing game for an anime figure, but gave up after 6 or 7 attempts.  I also played Taiko drum master on the rythm game floor section.  Its like dance dance except you're playing a tradition taiko drum.  

I then headed over to another train station to go to Kyoto.  This was by another train company, the JR line.  It had actual cushioned seats which was nice.  Took about an hour to get there, and on the way we passed what must have been the meiji candy company because suddenly there was a giant chocolate bar.  We also passed a suntory whiskey distillery but I didn't have time to smag a good picture.

After getting to Kyoto I was pretty hungry so I google mapped places to eat with good reviews.  The first one I went to turned out to be more of a souvenir and bento box place.  I
e. you'd  buy the hot bento and take it home with you.  So instead I looked for another place and Lo! there was a high rated sushi conveyor belt restaraunt.  It had a line which was also a good sign.  The way it works is you sit in a stool around a bar.  In the middle the sushi chefs prepare various kinds of sushi and put them on dishes on the conveyor belt, usually 2 pieces per dish.  If you want something you just grab it and eat it, keeping the plate.  The plates have different meanings.  There's the normal plate which is 160yen.  Shiny blue plates are specialty items at 360yen.  Solid blue plates have wasabi already on them, solid red do not.  You have a cup to add a green tea oacket to and a jot water dispenser in front of you as well as soy sauce, wasabi, and a menu.  You can also ask the chefs to make you something in particular, but I didn't.

I started with a specialty plate of extra fatty tuna, which was delicious.  Then I proceeded to have squid, salmon with onion, tuna wraps, shrimp tempura sushi, and regular tuna.  The big suprise was the onion and salmon.  I didn't know what it was when I grabbed it and the dollop of sauce in the middle turned out to be butter.  It was delicious.  Total was just under 10 bucks, pretty amazing considering how much I ate including the specialty item.  It was a great experience, would eat again.

I checked google maps to see the distance to the hostel.  It was 40 min away by walking but maps expects you to walk at 3mph the whole time so I figured cloaer to an hour.  Just outside the station I stopped at a pharmacy for more advil. I've been taking them occasionally now for what I've google diagnosed as tendonitus above my toe. The treatment is rest and ibuprofen.  While I was in there I was really temped to get some Sailor Moon cough drops that were shaped like the moon crest, but since I didn't have a cough I decided not to.

It was a relatively straight shot to the hostel that took me on a back alley through houses and some small stores.  The entire city so far is gorgeous, including the houses, which many look like they wouldn't have been out of place hundreds of years ago, except for the power lines criss crossing above.  After about an hour I got to Hitsuji-an hostel about 3 hours early.  I opened the door and said Konnichiwa questioningly.  I got a tentative konnichiwa? Back and this dude about 35ish-40 popped his head out sideways.  I told him I had a reservation and he was like ohhh...Is Japanese ok? I told him a little.  

So his name is Nori and he also speaks much better english than I do Japanese, and he's super awesome.  During our conversation he'd correct my Japanese if I said something weird or strange sounding.  It put me much more at ease using vocab or phrases I hadn't before.  While I was checking in he was frantically cleaning upstairs.  He came back and was like "where are you going today" and I said well I was going to stay here today, I'm super tired.  He said "you should go and come back, the rooms not ready for sleeping yet".  I asked him what he recommends and he whips out thos tourist map and starts ciecling all the cool things around and listing them.  He pulls out a pink highlighter and says, this is where Sakura blossoms have been spotted, theyre at maybe 50 percent bloom.  I asked if he goes flower watching, Hanami, and he says "no thats something you usually do with friends, and  I dont have any friends so...yeah" which cracked me up.  Gives me the map.  I say cool, any good places to eat? He pulls out a second map with stores and starts listing and circling them, crossing off the ones that have since closed.  Shows me the bus lines.  Super funny.

Aftwrwards he showed me the shower, bathroom, sink, fridge and food I can buy if I leave money there, the laundry room.  He said normally he charges 500 yen but since Im there 7 days I can use it but to just let him know.

He shows me the bed and the closet storage and he says ok thats it thats everything, and walks away.

So I left to go to Nijojo Castle.  Its 2 blocks away and is the former residence of the Shogun.  It shows the different areas of reception for the shogun and has his quarters and sitting room.  One very neat thing is the wooden walkway around the entire residence is built with "nightingale" floor joists.  These are metal rotating joists that are built to intentionally squeak when stepped on.  What this means is anyone ontruder or unknown person would be squeaking floorboards as they moved regardless of sneakiness.  As the groups walked through there was  lit of chirping going on.  As we got out of the castle and started walking around it I could see a crowd up ahead next tothe first cherry blossom tree I'd seen blooming.  I later found out that yesterday was officially declared the start of the season, as it was the highest temp of the year so far and trees were starting to bloom.  There were a total of 5 blooming trees I found out, and tents were being set up to sell ice cream and sake on the castle grounds.  They have cherry blossom watching there and night shows where they light up the petals.  I'll have to find a time to check it out.  Although as Nori said, no friends to do it with, so maybe I'll just grab ice cream and watch from a distance.  The river here is lined with the trees, so I'll head over there before I leave, and hooefully get a good view.

Finally I stopped at a ramen place before heading back.  It was Mangakyo Ramen where they have a specialty Kyoto Ramen with thicker meat I think.  It was just these 2 younger guys running it who were super polite.  I tried my best to slurp (just the polite thing to do). After I headed back to take a shower and get some sleep.

Also Kyoto is called "the walking city" on the map and I see why.  Almost everything is in range by foot.  There are a lot of western tourists here too amd almost everything as far as food and guide signs is written in english as well.

Can I be an Influencer Now?

Just a quick note: I added photos to the previous post, so check it out if you haven`t already.  I`ll add some to this post shortly.

So todays trip to Nara turned into a day trip.  I set out with a general intent to stay there over night but decided otherwise.  I`m typing this up at another Popeyes Net Cafe and the Japanese keyboards are a little weird.  Not sure where the actual apostrophe is I think I`ve been using that weird alternate one.

I did leave on time this morning.  I showered (which was great), packed my bag and left just before my end time.  Total was just ￥3500, about 31 bucks for the night.  Well worth it.  The train to Nara has various stops along the way but no transfers, and took about an hour.  Once I got there I saw what I expected: deer everywhere.  There are sacred deer that roam around town, but I haven`t googled what makes them sacred yet.  The first group I came across were about 4 of them next to some guys trimming the upper branches of a tree and when the branches fell the deer would much them.  Although they go everywhere they congregate most in Nara Park where they have wide open space and people feed them crackers they buy in small packs.  The deer will also bow to you if you bow to them.  Then they expect a cracker.  I didn`t feed any but got plenty of video of other people doing it and then getting slightly terrified because now they have a pack of deer running up to them and trying to get the rest of the crackers.  I also tricked some deer by bowing to them and then not giving them anything when they bowed back and pet a few when they randomly would come to check me out.  Also, maybe it was a normal tourist day, but there were tons of Chinese tour groups specifically and it was crowded all over town but made it easy to watch people-deer interactions.

Past the park was Todaiji, a very old Buddhist temple.  Outside, it was the largest wooden structure until some other ones were built fairly recently (like last 15 years if I remember right, I`m again not bothering to google it).  Inside it holds the largest bronze Buddha in the world.  There are 2 smaller Buddha on either side of him and in each corner of the temple statues of each of the four heavenly kings in Buddhism.  

It was raining pretty heavily on the way there, and I donned my poncho.  After going through the temple I was actually pretty bummed out from the cold, rain, and sore feed, so I grabbed a Macha soft serve and sat for a bit under an awning.  At this point I realized I was feeling pretty bad out and realized the issue was I`ve been constantly thinking about where I`m going to sleep at night.  It`s something I was thinking about while walking around and looking at things and was distracting me from having a good time.  My first time camping in a park was pretty meh, and if I did it here I`d have to basically go in the forest, and it was raining which is the worst thing.  

At any rate I didn`t want it to be a stresser on whats supposed to be a fun trip, and decided I`d mail home my tent and stick with internet cafes.  Immediately felt much better and was having a great time again.  It was still raining and cold so I went over to the Nara Museum which was fairly close.  It turned out to be an amazingly good choice.  Besides being dry and warm they have a large exhibit of Buddha statues, learned about meaning of different mudras (hand positions you see in Buddha statues), types of beings in Buddhism.  It had several statues deemed National Treasures, and amazingly wasn`t crowded.  It had benches and I could take it slow.

I stopped for lunch at a place that had deer themed Ice Cream.  I got Tonkatsu which is Deep Fried pork cutlets coated in panko, served with rice and curry.  I`ve made it twice myself, but this blew it out of the water.  Probably because the meat cuts were better, the breading was better, the curry wasn`t store bought.

Also I know I keep bringing it up, but my feet are a major driver now for what I want to do at a given point.  My normal point of reference is the state fair.  After the state fair I`m like "Phwew that was a lot of walking, my feet are sore".  Since I`ve had no permanent spot, I`ve been constantly moving.  Despite that I was passing another temple, Kofukuji on the way back to the train station.  I stopped by and it was quick so I was glad I did.  The coolness was on the outside.  It has a very tall, very cool pagoda.  It also had a temple to pray at which I did after watching (stalking) a guy doing it before me.  I knew the general process but wanted to double check.  Its:

1.  Donate monies in any amount into a slotted box

2.  Bow your head

3.  Ring the bell with a rope, but stand to the side of it, not directly in front (cause the middle is always reserved for any deitys who show up)

4.  Pray for something nice

After I took the train back I went back to DenDen town to get more pictures and see if there were cool things I missed.  The biggest neatest thing was I went into an arcade that was 6 stories tall.  Each floor had different stuff, each with crazy, loud, flash games I`ve never heard of.  The guy there was cool with me taking pics and long as I didn`t take pictures of customers.  I went into a few more stores and took some pics and left.  I once again headed off to Starbucks to wait a few hours before I could get the 10 hour deal at Popeyes, use the wifi, and rest my feet.  On the way back I stumbled across "Kitchenware Street".  It had all the cool super expensive cutlery and just about everything else.

Finally I headed to a different Popeyes.  Apparently they don`t charge universal rates.  I looked this one up and it had nicer `rooms` which could definitely fit someone not of Alex/Japanese stature, and is also about 5 bucks cheaper.  The one I was at last night had a guy 2 booths down from me with his feet sticking out the end.  So far it seems the downside is there are quite a few more cubes together in a room and the soda selection is way less interesting.

Also as my mom said she would (if anyone notices my mom`s comments where she`s all like "love mum-"), she did.  I told her my plan and she texted back "That sounds wise".  Well when you hang out with the Buddha the whole day, some of its gotta rub off on you....aaayyyyyy.  

Tomorrow I`m off to Kyoto where I hope to take things slow and I`ll be at a hostile for my entire 7 day stay there.  I`ll have the morning to try and ship out my tent and probably my sleeping bad.  I`ll keep the blanket and bag around to use in the net cafes.

Also I wasn`t sure where to put this but the reason of the title post is the western tourists here fit into a couple groups.  There`s the buddy backpackers (like me but lamer cause they need friendship), there`s the old couples fulfilling their dream to tour the world (often with a tour guide they can ask awkward questions in the format of "Is it true Japanese people xyz"), and there`s the influencers.  I`ve been watching those influencers and I think the trick is to look like you don`t care about what`s around you, and you definitely don`t care that someones pointing a camera at your face.  I took a video of these two guys doing the posing today and it was amazing.  Nara was the prime place for influencers though.  A lot of nice looking girls posing artfully with the deer; its basically Instagram heaven.  I should have something worthy in my pics today.  I`ll take a look!

Buy this matcha ice cream.  Its real good!

#influencer

Not my picture but they don't allow photography so I googled part of the exhibit.

Kofuku-ji

Part of Denden Town.  The Taito Game Center was the arcade I went into.

Huh...this place has free wifi.

  That's pretty neat!

One hallway of Popeyes.  The cubicle rooms are in a square surrounded by the shelves on the right.

Waking up to a Banana au Lait

Yesterday a good chunk of my day was spent at Starbucks overlooking Dotonbori.  This isn`t because I was lazy, but just because my feet were incredibly sore from the constant walking and standing.  After the update at the internet cafe I went to sit more and recharge my phone and battery.  I also wanted to look up directions for the Ukiyo-e Museum.  I found out it was closed on Monday`s however, so that was a bummer.  However instead I decided to go the Osaka Aquarium, one of the largest aquariums in the world and one of only 2 (including Atlanta Georgia) to house Whale Sharks.

I hopped on a train and headed out.  I feel pretty confidant about getting where I need to go now through the train system.  The process is:

1.  Google Maps the route and pick train (duh) and screenshot the directions in case I lose signal or something

2.  Maps gives the Station and route so choose the route on the ticket prompt, or, as I found out some machines have you select the station instead of the route.

3.  Pay attention on the train to get off at the right stop, and start looking for the next platform or point of transfer. 

4.  Make sure to keep the stub as you need it to get out.  Luckily I didn`t screw this up my first time and I`ve remembered it since.

At any rate I got to the Aquarium which is right next to the sea, a giant ferris wheel, and Legoland of some sort.  It wasn`t too crowded, fairly similar to crowds I`ve seen in MN for the zoo with kids swarming the popular attractions, but it was a weekday, so it was mostly a mix of Chinese and Korean tourists, with some Western tourists and Japanese families with small kids mixed in.  It was 2600yen, so a little expensive, but there were some very cool things.  First you go up escalators to the top of the building, then spiral down to view the different animal regions.  They had some land animals too including a Coatl, which was pretty neat.  The Antarctic section had an open air area for seals where 3 sides were sealed off (haw haw) and one had a short wall over which you could see straight to them.  They had a constant ice machine running above, dropping flakes every few seconds.

There was a lot more I could talk about but the main attraction was the whale shark tank.  It was massive and as I discovered by going further down many different viewing windows so the crowds weren`t a problem.  There were 2 whale sharks mixed in with a plethora of stingrays, the fish with the gaping mouths that swim in spirals (the ones from Finding Nemo where Nemo says `Swim Together!`) and some hammerhead sharks.  They also had Giant Spider Crabs which are native in Japan and I definitely wouldn`t want to swim near.

After exiting through the gift shop I headed back to the Dotonbori area, this time via `Amerikamura`.  This is a hip area where the cool kids who are into American fashion and culture hang out.  There`s a large (minature?) Statue of Libery on one of the buildings.  This area was super bizarre.  I went into an American antique/curio store and it had things like the California Raisins, McDonald`s toys, and just random stuff.  There was this Spiderman toy I remember from like only a few years back that was mechanical and would fire silly string when you said something.  Target put it on clearance cause nobody wanted it.  And here it was for the equivalent of $180.  There was a center to the area that was like a hangout spot with steps covered in teens mostly, a few people playing the guitar here and there.  The strangest thing I saw, and had to stifle my laughter is, and this one is going to be hard to describe...

A lot of shops in other areas have someone outside saying things like `Hey welcome! Come see this is wonderful!` etc etc.  In Amerikamura, there`s a store that has 3 buff African American dudes who stand outside all day to say things like `What`re you looking at`, `What!?` complete with arm raises with chests puffed out to these skinny Japanese teenagers who walked by.  I circled around a couple times just to verify.  I should`ve asked, but they looked busy acting menacing, and it was pretty crowded.  

After that was my other food item and 2nd Osaka specialty I wanted to get: `Okonomiyaki`.  There was one on the main strip the canal, and I saw a huge line, which turned out to be for a hotdog stand.  Those hotdogs looked amazingly good though, they were actually corndogs.  But any, Okonomiyaki is like a mixture of pancacke and dumplings almost.  Its made with a batter with onions, eggs, cabbage, and a savory ingredient topped with Japanese mayo and a sauce that`s like a light teriyaki barbecue.  It was fantastic.  Each table had a hotplate so it would stay very hot while you ate it.  I downed a couple beers with it and then headed over to Starbucks again. 

My feet once again needing recovery time.  This time I got a `Sakuraful Latte` a Sakura flower flavored drink that was pretty good.  Kind of like a mild cherry, with a definite floral taste.  I lucked out when I got my seat, it was packed and probably draws people watching as the canal starts getting going at night, and also it was one of the few seats with chargers.

I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, it was still fairly early.  I decided against camping because I was too tired and sore to get to where I wanted to be.  This time I planned ahead and decided to go to MediaCafe Popeyes, one of the most popular chains of internet cafes.  They have deals that start at 10pm so I had time to kill.  I decided to go watch Captain Marvel at a 3D Imax down the way.  I liked the movie, but confirmed I hate 3D.  It made me feel a little sick.

Popeyes has a registration I had to go through.  I was particularly tired at this point so my communication was worse than usual, but I stumpled through getting registered and choosing a 10 hour stay.  Its way more pleasant than the previous experience.  There`s a safe in each stall for personal effects.  I slept like a rock for about 6 1/2 hours.  Snoring from others was pretty light.  They have free drinks and after I took a shower I picked a Banana au Lait, made by Coca Cola.  Its like a hot, mild, banana laffy taffy flavor mixed with milk, pretty good actually.  I would drink it again.

My plan for today is to head out of here at 8:15 when my time here expires, so another hour, and then head to Nara where I`ll spend a day before heading to Kyoto and the hostile room that awaits me.  I`m really excited for Nara, I`m a little citied out and it has more of the cultural things I`m interested in.  

Stealth Camper Achievement and Long Long Day

This will be a long post as a lot happened yesterday, and its somewhat blended with today.  After sleeping 13 hours I woke up and got packed.  I waited to take a shower as someone was already in there, but afterwards got my first attempt at a Japanese shower.  It has 2 showerheads.  One for sitting on a stool and actually cleaning yourself, and another for use in the bathtub.  No time for that though, I cleaned up and went down to check out.  A younger guy was there to greet me.  After checking out he offered me an umbrella as it was raining a little bit.  I declined, but he double checked and I said no thanks and pointed to my backpack and made a gesture like putting on a raincoat hood complete with sound effect.  He wished me well and I took off to the train station.

This was train trial #2 for me.  I had to get to downtown Osaka.  Osaka Castle being my target destination.  I was able to connect to the Osaka Free Wifi, which is super handy, but is pretty spotty.  It suggested a train and a connecting train to get as close before I needed to walk.  I took a screenshot in case I lost connection which was handy and bought by ticket.  It took about an hour to get to Namba Station, only because it has so many stops along the way.  When I got to Namba Station I found out that it was huge.  I wandered around trying to find the rail line I needed.  Eventually I figured out it was on the subway.  I went to the ticket booth and clicked English -> Ticket.  I was presented with 3 prices, which I was not expecting.  I stared at it for a while, stared at the map, canceled out, went back in.  After a minute a guy working there asked if he could help and I told him the station.  He was like oh its this one.  So I got there and started walking along the river towards Osaka Castle.

This is where my compass started coming in handy as I had lost signal.  I knew the general direction to the castle and followed the river most of the way.  I had a great time at the castle, it was filled with tourists and locals.  The history of it was hard to keep track of but I think the main takeaway is that it burned down a lot of times.  There would be an old wood carving of the castle, and then one next to it where it was like "And here`s a painting of it burning down in the Summer war of 16xx".  There were a lot of those.

After that I started to head to DenDen Town which means "Electric Town".  Its Osaka`s answer to Akihabara in Tokyo.  Its shop after shop and alley after alley filled with electronic shops, anime stores, card stores, video game store, hardware, tools, and creepy maid cafes.  There was a strip of the maid cafes where they`d have a girl outside handing out fliers and trying to flag people down.  They mostly go ignored but I picked up a flier from one girl who seemed bored.  I think its an animal-girl themed cafe, like wearing fox ear things and tails.  The idea in these cafes is that you get charged a premium on the booze, and girls sit and talk with you and tell you how cool you are for an added fee.  At any rate I also went to Super Potato which is somewhat of a mecca for video game nerds, moreso the one in Tokyo.  They have just about everything but their prices have inflated over the years (according to folks online) and that was true.  Their prices are well above Ebay prices now simply due to it being so well known and a tourist destination.  The item I was looking for was there, a Gameboy Light, but at an exorbitant price of 18000yen, like 155usd.  It was a little beat up and was double the cost of what you get it for online.

After wandering for a while I headed over to Dotonbori, a tourist highlight and alley by the riverside.  Before getting there you hit a massive shopping center.  Its not really a center so much as indoor alleys loaded with mid to high end shops and food.  When I got to Dotonbori I spotted a line for Takoyaki and went in it.  Thats fried octopus balls for the unafilliated.  It took about 40 min to get through it and I sat down and ordered their monthly special with a beer.  It was pretty good, I`m not sure what the special flavor in there was but I like regular better.  Either way, it was tasty.

At this point it was starting to get latish, like 7:45 and I decided to start heading toward my marker for my first stealth camp spot.  Naniwanaka Park.  It was recommended to someone else who had done the same thing.  It took a while to get there and I made it there ate 8:30.  It was dark, nobody was there, and I picked what seemed the perfect spot.  As I pulled my tent out and started putting the poles in, some dude on a bike entered that park and looked over at me while I was clinking away with the metal poles.  I was like, oh well I`ve come this far I`ll just keep going.  So he pedaled off and I just set up everything.  It was cold, and according to the weather far away the coldest night of the week.  It got down to 37 degrees F which it still is.  So I`m in my sleeping bag, being super paranoid that that guy went off to grab the 5 O`s (that`s police for those who aren`t living the thug life).  He didn`t, but it was just like backcountry camping for the first time.  Every little noise freaks you out, someone walking buy or talking.  I did fall asleep but woke up every 2 hours or so until 3am.  At which point I catnapped until 4.  I got up, organized and starting putting things away, took me half an hour total.  My takeaway here was that I need to come in later, and leave at about the time I did.

Now I felt much better because in the end nothing happened, but those first hours where really nerve-wracking.  I went to go find a bathroom.  I headed back towards Dotonbori as it had something I knew I would want, a Starbucks.  My problem is that it doesn`t open until 8. so I have 3 hours to kill.  I spent one of them in a Donkihote, its a massive multi-story sprawling store with just weird stuff on every floor.  It has a floor for candy/snacks/drinks, a floor for sex toys, a floor for makeup, a floor for souvenirs, electronics, home goods etc all with narrow aisles and filled floor to ceiling.  It also has a restaurant with one bored looking dude there.

So that worked for a little bit, but it was still cold out and my backpack was chafing my sides.  I spotted an internet cafe. They have really good deals if you stay 6 hours or more, but I only needed to kill 2.  I walked into the `Gran Cyber Cafe b@gus`.  The guy at the front looked like Lester from the Adams Family.  I greeted him and held up a hand with 2 fingers `Ni-ju Onegaishimasu` (2 hours please).  He asks if I smoke, I say no.  I blank out when he says the price and hand him a 5000 yen (50 bucks).  I get the change back, and it was 1620 yen, about 15 bucks.  No biggy.  He hands me a pass with the room number and gives me directions, its around the corner to the right.  What I come across is a weaving corridors of black cubicles, one part saying `Girls only`, a black bookcase room filled with Manga, and finally the area I go into.  There`s an unknown number of sleeping and barley awake men in here, some snuffling occasionally, one snoring.  When the time gets close alarms go off in their cubes.  The cubes themselves have a padded floor, a desk with a computer, tv remote, and headset.  I could lay down in it, but anyone taller would be a no-go.  Everything is black.  There`s a light above that you can turn on and the black prevents it from reflecting up to the ceiling.  The cubicles don`t have ceilings.  I`m typing this up on that very computer, and its a very strange experience to say the least.

So I`ll see what I want to do today.  I have another park picked, but maybe I`ll find another internet cafe.  I`ll upload some pics at some point today.  Possibly while sitting in Starbucks.  On my to-do list is walk less, maybe go to the Ukiyo-e Museum, and go to America-mura, a neighborhood based on us!  I`m going to go use the facilities here and check out the all you can drink stuff.  I have almost exactly one hour left.

Made It!

Not too much to report on the flights over other than the guy sitting behind me on the 12 hour flight had abysmally bad breath.  And yes it was making it up to my seat.  Im going to make this a quick writeup with almost 0 editing because its 7pm here and I slept maybe 4 hours in the last day and a half.

Customs took a little while.  After that I was waiting at the belt for my checked tent and some dude come up to me gesturing and looking official.  It turns outthe airline stacks the luggage themselves of each flight and personally brings over any confused foreigners and helps them find their bag.  Very nice, my attempt to use Japanese here vaguely, as I was able to say "over there?", "ah, there it is!", and "thank you" with a nod.

Next hurdle, getting a train ticket.  I managed to spend only 10min looking dazed at all the maps and machines.  In that time I identified the station I wanted to get to.  I told an attendant I was trying to get to that station (great success) and she gestured towards a machine and told me which one (which I didn't quite catch). I rechecked the map, bought a ticket and got some much needed chamge in the process and then navigated to the trains.  After spending a couple minutes staring at the train, looking at my ticket, the speaker came on and listed the stops.  I got off at the station I wanted and then searched for signs because like 1 other person got off the packed trains and it was pretty sparse.  I did it right though, it was the right stop and the business hotel was a 2 minute walk away.  A nice middle aged woman greeted me and after telling her I mad a reservation, I sat down to sign the agreement.  She got me some tea and she showed me my room and the facilities.  This is where I was most awkward.  I stopped mid sentence a few times and just blanked.  But, I made her chuckle by saying it was a big place after she revealed there was a 2nd bathroom.

Hopefully I can be more chill later and not panic, but I can currently blame it on being super tired, confused by everything, and speaking to Japanese people for the first time.  

I'll organize my stuff, get some sleep, and use the train again to get downtown tomorrow.

Also Ive had the tv going and Japanese Spongebob is just as wonderful as english and has a new ending song for it.